All Invisible Women Articles

Celine parachuted into France ten days before D-Day to courier and train maquis groups in weaponry behind the lines (Invisible Women Episode 7). In 2005 she told me that in training with the Special …

As I landed in Northern Ireland rain was running across the plane’s windows and although the ground scape looked rather bleak, the old wooden out-buildings were a captivating aqua marine blue …

Are women agents better at remaining silent than their male counterparts when interrogated? In 2005 I interviewed a retired Canadian operative from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) …

Present day women writers are correcting the historical loss of women’s espionage narratives by crafting articles and books on the lives of WW 2 and CIA women agents. They are bringing …

On a recent fall trip to Nova Scotia, I stopped at the memorial for Mona Parsons, the only Canadian woman civilian to be imprisoned by the Nazis in WW 2 for resistance activities.

Although I’ve written Invisible Women articles about American spies operating in the field (Martha Peterson and Elizabeth Bentley) during the Cold War in the U.S. and U.S.S.R., this is the first …

Elizabeth Bentley, an American, graduated from Vassar College in 1930 with a degree in languages. While completing a Master’s degree at Columbia University she won a scholarship to the …

Martha Peterson commented, “After we were married, he told me he had applied for the Central Intelligence Agency or CIA.” Her husband, like Lilian’s in Invisible Women Ep. 3, as …

Liberté is a new short film written and acted in by Sam Naz (British broadcaster/actress) about the heroine, Noor Inayat Khan, a Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent who was one of the first women …

I have been asked “Why did you spend eighteen months researching to locate World War 2 women espionage agents to interview, when there are some historical accounts and novels on the …

Michelle Corjon, a resistance fighter, was awarded France’s Croix de Guerre and the silver medal for French Resistance. She was the youngest member ever to serve in the French resistance …

Operation Enormoz was a WW2 Soviet venture to recruit British and American spies who sympathised with communism. Although the Soviet Union had joined forces with the U.S and Britain against Nazi …

In WW 2 and the Cold War many ordinary U.K. and U.S. citizens were approached to become spies for the Soviet Union. The individuals who said yes did so because of unusual circumstances and/or …

Cathay Williams was the first Black woman to become a soldier in the U.S Army and a Buffalo Soldier in the American Indian Wars. Although there were laws against women enlisting, in her determination …

On the heels of Facebook’s announcement recently that Iranian spies were targeting U.S. medical, military and the technology sectors through social media accounts, Proofpoint, a security …

Before WW 2 Major Marina Raskova was the first woman to be awarded the distinction of “Hero/ine of the Soviet Union.” She was the first female pilot and navigator for the Soviet Air Force …

“Almost every time we had to sail through a wall of enemy fire,” Nadezhda Popova stated. She became the WW 2 deputy commander of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, flying 852 missions bombing Nazi …

The Nachthexen or Night Witches of WW 2, as the Nazis nicknamed them, would swoop down without a sound except for the momentary whooshing of their plywood planes just before they dropped their bombs. …

It was a lovely weekend on Bowen Island (Aug 7-8, 2021) to celebrate the island’s creative spirit and its local performers and writers of scripts, poetry, novels, and magazines. The annual Write …

In 1777 George Washington wrote a letter to Nathaniel Sackett engaging him to organise an espionage network and to spy for the Continental Army. Washington asked Sackett because he had produced the …

Women have been appointed to lead the Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s (CSIS), Toronto office; Katherine Hannah is head of Canada’s largest intelligence gathering office and Zahra …

Canadian spymaster Sir William Stephenson, known as Intrepid, who directed British Security Coordination for the Western Hemisphere said that Amy Thorpe Pack Brousse, an American citizen, was …

There is a secret Iranian army on Facebook to surveil, steal and undermine U.S., European, and U.K. interests and products across all the major industrial sectors including aerospace/defence and …